D&D 5E What to do when Pc's die? What then for that player?

[GameOgre]

What do you guys do with dead pc's? I'm the DM for our 5E game right now.

My players die a lot. They just frankly go through spells of rolling really badly and spells where tactics are things other people use.

The player of the fighter just died last night. Now the group has no fighter. The player started to roll up and level up a character to match the level of the rest of the group(who had gained a level) so he lost his character so ended up coming back with a higher level character.

In theory, I'm against this. Heck back in the day we used to have to restart at 1st level no matter what level we were. "You had to earn those them there levels boy!"*spit into a spittoon*.

Having a high level character meant you had some skills as a player (otherwise you wouldn't have gotten so high). With our current way of doing things just doing nothing but charging every single fight and if you die make up another character just as experienced or maybe even better will work.

On the other hand, it sure is nice to be able to just get passed a small speed bump and keep playing with our current set up.

How do you guys handle this?

 

[Cernor]

I've yet to have a PC die after first level, but in the game I'm currently in the DM told us that we'd lose 40% of the experience to the next level when we die and reroll, but keep their level. For example, the difference between level 2 and 3 is 600 XP so if a 2nd-level PC die they'd lose 150XP, but if they only had 400XP they'd be a 2nd-level PC with 250XP. If the PC gets resurrected they only lose something like 10%... But we haven't had anyone die yet anyway (or even be knocked unconscious). And considering bounded accuracy, level 1 PCs can still be useful at higher levels--not to mention catching up to the rest of the party really quickly.

 

[jrowland]

For one, I want to dissuade anyone from "starting at level 1" for any new character...at low levels, this is fine, but it becomes ridiculous at later levels. Here's why:

Assume a party of 4 8th level characters loses Joe the Rogue. The Player rolls up a new character, Jim the Rogue and they continue on their adventure facing a CR 8 creature (3900 xp). After pew-pewing from the shadows, Jim the Rogue gains 675xp for his share of the XP! Ding! Jim the Rogue is now well into level 2. Another CR 8 encounter, another 675xp, and Jim the Rogue is now level 3 with 1350xp. It takes two more CR 8 creatures for Jim to hit the Rogue to hit level 4 (2700xp). Two final cr 8 encounters/creatures ends the adventuring day (average 6-8) and Jim the Rogue now has 4050xp, still 4th level, but the Player has carpal tunnel from adjusting his character sheet furiously.

My advice: no lower than 1/2 the average (remaining) party level. This way, and adventuring day might level the character once, but each encounter won't. In addition, if PCs die a lot, the average party level drops, thus discouraging reckless play (it impedes leveling up). Alternatively have them start at 1/2 average (remaining) party XP...the xp scales differently so this will start them slightly higher than 1/2 average level.

Personally, for home games its -1 level per character death per total character deaths of the player in a given campaign (ugh, that's wordy!). Basically, first PC death is free, come back at same level, next character you have that dies means you start at level -1, then another death means start at level -2, etc. And I usually limit what classes are available based on the story/location/etc (I try to push NPCs they've encountered as the "new PC") with only one hard rule: can't play the same sub-class. Period.

For Encounters I let players bring characters in at the same level.

 

[MasterTrancer]

Well, having new PCs come into play on par with the other is fine when you're playing an AP-like campaign, which is usually tuned for a definite range of char levels.

If on the other hand you're playing your own campaign, without a set pace, I'd go with new PCs coming into play at least a couple levels lower than the last character from the same player (i.e.: the last dead one). Go with this way if you're trying to tell a story (as a gaming group). This will somewhat punish throwing away chars, but also requires you to devise balanced challenges.

The last scenario is a fun but transient one: if PCs are dying so that new concepts and builds are tried, go with it and bring new PCs into play being at the same level than the still alive others.

Hope this helps.

 

[Sacrosanct]

You're the DM. do whatever you feel comfortable with, whether that's starting new PCs at level 1, 1/2 level, or whatever. Just be sure to communicate these expectations to the players.

 

[Umbran]

What you do should depend on what you need to motivate your players to not die.

Some players need strong inducement to avoid being foolish or to pay attention to consequences of actions. Others don't. If your players don't need the threat of coming back weaker as an inducement, then there's no real point to a penalty for dying.

 

[billd91]

I think the general practice of starting new PCs at level 1, which kind of worked in 1e and 2e, got savaged by the tighter (and I'd say overdesigned) balance of 3e and 4e. It would probably work much better in 5e than it did in either of its two preceding editions. That said, I still probably wouldn't make a player start at lower than 3rd level. Those first 2 levels, as jrowland pointed out, will just be speed bumps at best.

Alternatively, take a look at the way the game's been running and eyeball what a new PC (and player) would need more - the experience of building up their abilities organically and learning them in stages (a benefit more for the player mastering the rules and style of a new PC than PC itself) or the additional hit points a higher level would bring. If, as you say, your players play somewhere in that space between unlucky and making their own unluck with bad tactics, you may want to not have the PC start out at a lower level at all. He probably needs every hit point he can get...

 

[Blackwarder]

In my table when a PCR dies the player lose a finger unless the party manage to resurect the PC in a timely maner, cause we are hardcore alike that..

If they don't resurect the PCR than the (fingerless) player roll up a new 1st level PC, although I'm thinking about resurecting the carousing rule from ACKS a and OD&D in my game.

Warder

 

[Agamon]

I don't track XP, I just level the party when it feels right. So no one is of dissimilar level than anyone else. Less fiddly that way. So if a PC dies, he'll be coming back the same level as everyone else.

But we've only had one PC die so far, and it was back at 1st level from an unlucky crit. The players are playing smart because they don't want to die. Their PCs are tied into the story of the campaign, so they aren't throw-away bags of hp that can be replaced by Bob the Fighter IV. They have a vested interest to stay alive, and play like it.

Not to say I'm an easy going DM. We had 37 PC deaths playing through Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil a few years ago. Back then, I did track XP, and I did make the PCs lose a level if they died (but no lower than lowest level in the party). That made for quite the regression loop; I learned something that campaign.

 

[ExploderWizard]

What to do with dead PC's? I dunno, use them for compost after going through their pockets looking for loose change maybe?

The PLAYER, OTOH, rolls up a brand new level 1 PC and continues playing.